Benvenuti al Domina Hotel Rotterdam!
Benvenuti al Domina Hotel Rotterdam! That was the headline of a note in the room. Handwritten so personal. A good start.
An Italian hotel chain is integrating into the Dutch hotel market. The hotel is next to the Rotterdam Zoo (despite the view on the zoo I did not see any animals), next to the baseball stadium (Neptunes?) and within walking distance of 'Het Kasteel' (stadium of Sparta Rotterdam) of King Aad de Mos. Free parking and 10 minutes by bus 32 to the center of Rotterdam.
Laura (yes, you are mentioned), blonde hair, glasses, yellow tie and very friendly checked us in. Room 516. Decent room, good bed. The use of de minibar is included. The content was very meager: a Coke, a diet Coke, 1 Spa blue, 1 Spa red, 1 orange juice and a beer. They may include a bottle of wine. Next to the hotel is a Wellness Center. For 10 Euros you can swim, work out or relax. The restaurant “I Girasoli” is recommended. Starters and dessert`s are quite expensive (11-16 Euros), but the Saltimbocca (veal steak in Parma ham) was delicious and the service was excellent and very international: a Surinamese waiter, a Hungary waitress and a original Italian cook.
What was there to do in Rotterdam? Friends of ours had bought a table at the gala 'Spieren voor Spieren' (a good charity fund in the Netherlands) in the old Van Nelle factory. Cultural heritage, beautiful surroundings. Ron for the first time in his life in a tuxedo and Marjo in an evening dress. A four-course dinner, Japanese drums and a great performance by Karin Bloemen including a dyslexic story: “Koodrapje en de woze bolf” (from Little Red Riding Hood). Karin thought frankly that Pieter van de Hoogenband was a very nice guy. Central to this was an auction about documents such as clinics with Roy Heiner (sailing), the Women’s Hockey team and Frank de Boer, works of art, arrangements for Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord and AZ (PSV brought in 3500, the others 4000) and a visit to FC Bayern Munich, including a dinner with Louis and Truus van Gaal. Louis could only be there via telephone, as he was on a training camp with his team, but Truus took the honors in style. A good person and a nice woman. In total, the evening made 500.000 Euro. A great success. Healthy muscles helping sick muscles. Danced on "Proud Mary" and went to bed around 2.00 AM.
In the morning, after a good breakfast, we made a tour through the port of Rotterdam. Beautiful weather, beautiful city, all though the Coolsingel is still eerily quiet. After that we went back to Schipborg.
Only a month left in Drenthe, because then we'll be moving to Heerenveen. The next column will be send out of Friesland.
Best regards,
Ron Jans
For comments, suggestions or questions mail Ron Jans at Ron@lookingforbooking.nl
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